Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Yellowface

Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

150 reviews

meaghanslibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I’m between a 3.75 and a 4. Then beginning and middle of the book I thought were so good. The quips and short sentences were very engaging to read. The plot was very creative.

The back end of the middle started to drag. The end felt rushed and fell a bit flat, I guess I was hoping for more, but not sure what I would have preferred instead.

I think this book would lead to good discussions in book clubs about authorship, representation, and race. Hmm I guess for the beginning part of the book and convos I’ll give it a 4. I think if you asked me to rate it early on it was a heavy contender for a 5, but the ending really just lacked. To some extent I did feel like the authors other work Babel had a bit of a rushed ending. But in that book I thought the beginning and middle dragged and the end saved it.

I give props to the author for branching out well into different genres.

Content Warnings

shingekiyes's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

holy shit this book is SHARP. any and all of the negative reviews are actually wrong—this book is a masterpiece.

as someone who works in publishing… this book was so meta. it was actually jarring to read about such familiar circumstances, famous figures, and social niches. i was completely immersed from the get and i did not want to put this book down for a single second.

my jaw dropped in chapter one, and dropped, and dropped, and dropped—it nearly fell off. every twist was so captivating. themes of theft, plagiarism, greed, envy, narcissism, and OF COURSE racism and false allyship were expertly woven into the narrative. at times i felt hit over the head with the message, but not because of any fault of the author, but because of the startling realism of June’s character.

June was such an unreliable narrator, Nick Carraway is shaking in his boots! it was absolutely hilarious how often the characters referenced Fitzgerald, and the other literary references didn’t go unnoticed either!

i loved that the resolution wasn’t black and white—it felt completely realistic and perfectly appalling. and the moral resolution wasn’t totally black and white either. because Athena was dead, because both June and Candace and every other character is complex and flawed, because business and the arts are so complicated, there was notable nuance to some of the messaging about legacy, retellings, and what artists DESERVE.

this is a must read for any and everyone interested in the publishing industry, and for white people willing to do some introspection about their own implicit biases in both their creative pursuits and their careers.

Content Warnings

themadsonlibrary's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

juliacsmith's review against another edition

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informative tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

wow wow wow

Content Warnings

teeclecticreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Yellowface is about the strained relationship between June Hayward and Athena Liu that tragically ends with Athena dying by pancake suffocation. Both authors, with Athena having tremendously more success, June sees an opportunity for herself by releasing Athena’s unpublished novel, The Last Front, but as her own. The rest of the plot follows the tumultuous results of such an action.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It’s been 2 days since I’ve finished this book and I’m still thinking about it. I don’t like writing reviews with spoilers because I want everyone to be able to enjoy my review, so it took me a while to come up with the right words. So I will say that Rebecca Kuang wrote an entertaining piece of satire that also critiques the varying levels of privilege.

I’ve never read a more frustrating, delusional, self-concerned, manipulative main character than Juniper Song Hayward. This was a buddy read with @adannareadsandplans and a few others on StoryGraph and the whole time all we could think was, “Is she serious?” Or “Wow June, that’s stooping low.” The constant need for justification and praise only made her more determined to stick to her script.

However, Athena was no angel either as we find out in the novel. While June was a covert type of narcissistic, Athena was more overt under the guise of being artistic. It doesn’t make what June did okay, but it does give us a bit more insight.

Some of the scenes were so ridiculous I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. The slow spiral into madness was as pitiful as it was hilarious. And that one character? MVP. They really did what needed to be done.

I also really loved the insight we got into the publishing world because as readers, we don’t really see that aspect so much. The process from draft, to editing, to selling the manuscript, to the actual publishing is really so detailed and intriguing. Thank you Rebecca for taking us into your world.

Honestly? It’s not for everyone I can say that. You either love it or you hate it because June was really so overbearing. However, I personally enjoyed it a lot and would be interested in reading more of Kuang’s work (when I have the mental capacity to do so 😂)

Content Warnings